Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Life as a BCM practitioner in any organisation can sometimes
feel lonely and like an uphill struggle, a never-ending battle with no imminent
victory in sight.

We need to be a ‘jack of all trades’ starting from knowing how
to make BCM relevant and of interest to all areas of the organisation, to being
a master of persuasion to convince sceptical stakeholders, to having to have an
eye for detail to carry out an effective BIA as well as being highly organised
to maintain the BC Plan and be skilled facilitators to run our exercises!

The constant battle as we BC practitioners strive to embed
BCM into our organisation’s culture is taxing to say the least and just when we
feel like giving up as our energy levels ebb into the distance, along comes the
BCM World Conference to revitalise the parts other events cannot reach and to
fill us with inspiration and renewed enthusiasm for our one true ‘professional’
passion.

BCM World Conference is the place where we can be with our allies, where we stand
together with the ‘already convinced’ and the ‘converted’, where we are part of
a global, united force and where we can find temporary release from our ivory towers

For me the Conference is a place I go to immerse myself in
the world of BCM. As a delegate I can find out what’s new, what other
practitioners from a wide range of organisations are doing and how are they
doing it. I can listen to professionals from all over the world talk about
common problems we all face and become part of the conversation about what we
can do about it. I can learn from the wealth of experience and knowledge from
experienced leaders in their fields, share my own experience and best of all I
can take this away with me back to my place of work.

I can find out what tools are out there to help me do my job
by visiting the exhibition. I can see anything from software providers, salvage
companies and consultants all who know exactly what I do and why I am there. I
have listened to some fascinating stories in presentations given on the
exhibition floor. I have been inspired to attend workshops and training courses
and I can find out how to continue with my professional development.

I have been fortunate to be in a position to go to BCM World
and take the opportunity to learn, to network and make new friends and I can’t
imagine not attending the conference in the future.

This year I am lucky enough to work for the Business
Continuity Institute and so I don’t need to make a business case to my employers
to fund my attendance! But I do know that there is no better place for anyone
with any interest in Business Continuity to be.

If, like me, you leave with a renewed feeling of enthusiasm
for your work and full of useful knowledge and some new ideas to try back in
the office, then it has been a worthwhile investment and one you will continue
to reap the benefits of for a very long time.

And if you are looking to save a bit of money, the BCI are
offering an Early Bird Rate for both Members and Non-Members, which is
available until 31st July 2012.So hurry and take advantage of this by booking your place right now here

To find out more about the Conference click here
or download the Conference Programme here

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

The
one thing that almost all Business Continuity professionals agree upon is that
BCM originated in IT Disaster Recovery (ITDR). Until very recently I would have argued
that ITDR was no longer a core issue of BC practitioners in multi-national or
global organizations. Although the risks of IT failure were extensive and the
potential impact massive, the probability of those risks being manifest was
very much under control. The sheer expenditure and sophistication of ICT in major
organizations should have designed resilience into the infra-structure so that
IT failures were largely invisible to customers and other external
stakeholders.

My
first reaction to hearing that the Royal Bank of Scotland had serious IT problems
with a software upgrade was one of disbelief. Surely not I told my colleagues,
there has to be more to it than this, perhaps a cyber-attack or perhaps
internal sabotage. When no rumours of such dramatic events emerged and the
banking group kept extending their expected recovery period I had to
reluctantly admit I was wrong. As I write, the banking group are still not
totally operational at their Ulster Bank subsidiary after 4 weeks of
disruption, and even customers at the bank’s main brands (RBS and NatWest)
experienced delays of a week or more.

Monday, 16 July 2012

﻿The Business Continuity Institute has launched its 2012
Global Awards.The Awards recognise the
outstanding achievements of business continuity professionals working worldwide
and celebrate the top talent in this rising industry.

This year sees the launch of two new judged categories - BCM
Newcomer of the Year and Business Continuity Team of the Year - as well as the
addition of Business Continuity Personality of the Year, which is decided by
public vote.

An independent judging panel presides over the Awards entries. Eight judges representing the education, private
and public sectors in Australia, India, South Africa, USA and the UK, including
the Houses of Parliament make up the panel and ensure a truly cross-sector and global
evaluation.

The Awards will be presented at the BCI Gala Dinner and Awards
that completes day one of the BCM World Conference and Exhibition 2012 that
takes place 7th to 8th November 2012 at Olympia,
London.

This year the Gala Dinner is being hosted at one of London’s top
tourist attractions, Madame Tussauds, home to stars past and present, providing
a fitting setting for a BCM star-studded event.

The BCI Global Awards are open to everyone working in the business
continuity industry.

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

It is difficult to get buy-in at the very top
in organizations because BCM is wrongly seen as an operational matter. In a
booming economy it is easy to think that sufficient resources are available to
deal with any adverse incident that might occur. However, in these more
challenging times, there is less confidence in the ability of an organization’s
capability to simply “buy itself out of trouble”.

Many strategic
decisions are taken without full consideration of the consequence of
interruption such as, the growth of outsourcing, off-shoring, long supply
chains and low cost manufacturing. Whilst generally adding short-term value to
the bottom-line, when any of these strategies fail to deliver, reputation and
brand image are compromised. Short-term financial losses might be containable
but long-term loss of market share is often much more damaging.

So getting buy in at the top requires a
Business Continuity professional to have better understanding of the concerns
of Top Management and an ability to communicate any risk concerns in a language
they are familiar with. Real high-profile examples help grow awareness and
promote management attention but only if the business consequences of a
disruptive event are emphasised, not the technical failures that caused it.
Many leaders were shaken by the corporate impact that the Gulf of Mexico oil
spill incident had on the finances, share-price and reputation of BP, a truly
global business. Business Continuity Managers can benefit themselves and their
organizations by using their skills to identify their own organization’s potential
high consequence events.